Releaserator Skill

Automate the release process with semantic versioning, Keep A Changelog format, and GitHub release creation.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Pre-flight Checks

Task: Verify repository state is clean and ready for release

Run these checks:

# Check git status (must be clean)
git status --porcelain

# Check current branch
git branch --show-current

# Detect version file (check in priority order)
for f in .claude-plugin/plugin.json package.json pyproject.toml Cargo.toml; do
  test -f "$f" && echo "VERSION_FILE=$f" && break
done

# Check for gh CLI
command -v gh >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "INSTALLED" || echo "NOT_FOUND"

Validation:

• Working directory MUST be clean (no uncommitted changes)
  • If dirty: Error with message: "Working directory has uncommitted changes. Please commit or stash changes before creating a release."
• Current branch SHOULD be main/master
  • If not: Ask user to confirm creating release from current branch
• A supported version file MUST exist (one of the following, checked in order):
  • .claude-plugin/plugin.json — Claude Code plugin
  • package.json — Node.js project
  • pyproject.toml — Python project (version in [project] or [tool.poetry])
  • Cargo.toml — Rust project (version in [package])
  • If none found: Error with message: "No supported version file found. Releaserator supports: plugin.json, package.json, pyproject.toml, Cargo.toml"
• gh CLI MUST be installed
  • If missing: Error with message: "GitHub CLI (gh) not found. Install with: brew install gh"

Store:

• VERSION_FILE = path to the detected version file

Optional check: Verify docs/CONTEXT.md is recent (< 24 hours old)

• If stale: Warn user and suggest running /session-wrapup first

Step 2: Determine Current Version and Last Release

Task: Read current version and find last release tag

# Read current version from VERSION_FILE (use Read tool)
# Parse the version field based on file type (see below)

# Find last tag (if any)
git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "NO_TAGS"

# List all tags for reference
git tag --list --sort=-version:refname

Version parsing by file type:

Logic:

• Read and parse version from VERSION_FILE
• If no tags exist, this is first release (baseline: use all commits)
• If tags exist, use latest tag as baseline for commit collection

Store:

• CURRENT_VERSION = version from VERSION_FILE
• LAST_TAG = latest git tag (or "NO_TAGS")
• IS_FIRST_RELEASE = true if no tags exist

Step 3: Collect Commits Since Last Release

Task: Get all commits since last release for changelog generation

# If tags exist: commits since last tag
git log LAST_TAG..HEAD --oneline --no-merges

# If no tags: all commits (first release)
git log --oneline --no-merges

Parse each commit:

For each commit line, extract:

• Commit hash (first 7 characters)
• Commit type (feat, fix, docs, refactor, perf, chore, test, ci, build, style)
• Scope (optional, in parentheses)
• Breaking change indicator (exclamation mark before colon)
• Description (after colon)
• PR reference (look for PR number pattern)

Example parsing:

abc1234 feat(auth): add OAuth support (#42)
→ hash: abc1234
→ type: feat
→ scope: auth
→ breaking: false
→ description: add OAuth support
→ pr: 42

Check commit body for BREAKING CHANGE:

For commits that might have breaking changes, also check the full commit message:

git log LAST_TAG..HEAD --format="%H %s%n%b%n---" --no-merges

Look for BREAKING CHANGE: in commit body.

Store parsed commits in a data structure:

commits = [
  {hash, type, scope, breaking, description, pr},
  ...
]

Step 4: Determine Version Bump

Task: Analyze commits to determine MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH bump

Rules (Conventional Commits):

1. MAJOR bump if ANY commit has:

   • BREAKING CHANGE in commit body/footer, OR
   • Exclamation mark before colon (e.g., feat!, fix!)

2. MINOR bump if (and no MAJOR):

   • ANY feat: commits exist

3. PATCH bump if (and no MAJOR/MINOR):

   • ANY fix: or perf: commits exist

4. No bump if only:

   • docs:, refactor:, chore:, test:, ci:, build:, style:

Calculate new version:

# Pseudocode for version bump
def bump_version(current, bump_type):
    major, minor, patch = map(int, current.split('.'))

    if bump_type == 'MAJOR':
        return f"{major + 1}.0.0"
    elif bump_type == 'MINOR':
        return f"{major}.{minor + 1}.0"
    elif bump_type == 'PATCH':
        return f"{major}.{minor}.{patch + 1}"
    else:
        return current  # No bump

Edge case: If no version bump needed (only docs/chore commits), ask user:

⚠️ No version bump needed (only documentation/chore commits).
Do you want to create a release anyway? (y/N)

Store:

• BUMP_TYPE = "MAJOR" | "MINOR" | "PATCH" | "NONE"
• NEW_VERSION = calculated new version

Step 5: Generate Changelog Entry

Task: Create Keep A Changelog formatted entry for this release

Group commits by section:

Format each commit line:

- Description ([#PR](https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/pull/PR)) ([hash](https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/commit/hash))

If no PR reference, omit PR link. Always include commit hash link.

Breaking changes:

Collect all breaking changes (commits with exclamation mark or BREAKING CHANGE) and add to the top of the relevant section with ⚠️:

- ⚠️ **BREAKING**: Description of breaking change

Extract repo info:

# Get remote URL and parse owner/repo
git remote get-url origin
# Parse: git@github.com:owner/repo.git → owner/repo
# Or: https://github.com/owner/repo.git → owner/repo

Load template: Read skills/releaserator/templates/changelog-entry.md

Substitute variables:

• {{VERSION}} → NEW_VERSION
• {{DATE}} → today's date (ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD)
• {{ADDED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
• {{CHANGED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
• {{DEPRECATED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
• {{REMOVED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
• {{FIXED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
• {{SECURITY}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
• {{BREAKING}} → breaking changes summary (or omit section if none)

Remove empty sections: If a section has no commits, remove the entire section heading and content.

Store: CHANGELOG_ENTRY = generated markdown

Step 6: Update or Create CHANGELOG.md

Task: Prepend new version entry to CHANGELOG.md

Check if CHANGELOG.md exists:

test -f CHANGELOG.md && echo "EXISTS" || echo "MISSING"

If CHANGELOG.md exists:

1. Read existing CHANGELOG.md
2. Find insertion point:
   • If ## [Unreleased] exists, insert after it
   • Otherwise, insert after the header (before first version)
3. Insert CHANGELOG_ENTRY
4. Update comparison links at bottom:
   • Add new version link: [VERSION]: https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/releases/tag/vVERSION
   • Update Unreleased link: [Unreleased]: https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/compare/vVERSION...HEAD

If CHANGELOG.md doesn't exist:

1. Load template: skills/releaserator/templates/CHANGELOG.md
2. Substitute variables:
   • {{VERSION}} → NEW_VERSION
   • {{DATE}} → today's date
   • {{REPO}} → owner/repo from git remote
   • {{ADDED}}, {{CHANGED}}, etc. → from CHANGELOG_ENTRY
3. Write new CHANGELOG.md

Use Write tool to create/update CHANGELOG.md

Step 7: Update Version File

Task: Write new version to VERSION_FILE

By file type:

Use Read and Edit tools for precise replacement.

Step 8: Commit Version Bump

Task: Create commit for version and changelog changes

# Stage files (VERSION_FILE is the detected version file from Step 1)
git add VERSION_FILE CHANGELOG.md

# Create commit
git commit -m "chore: bump version to NEW_VERSION"

Commit message format: chore: bump version to X.Y.Z

This follows conventional commits (type: chore, as it's a release task).

Store commit hash for later reference:

git rev-parse HEAD

Step 9: Create Git Tag

Task: Create annotated git tag for release

# Create annotated tag (not lightweight)
git tag -a vNEW_VERSION -m "Release vNEW_VERSION"

Tag format: v prefix + semantic version (e.g., v1.2.3)

Annotated tags are used (not lightweight) so they contain:

• Tagger name and email
• Tag date
• Tag message

Step 10: Push Changes and Tag

Task: Push commit and tag to remote

Ask user for confirmation:

Ready to push release v1.2.3 to remote?
- Commit: abc1234 "chore: bump version to 1.2.3"
- Tag: v1.2.3

This will:
1. Push commit to main branch
2. Push tag v1.2.3
3. Trigger any CI/CD workflows

Continue? (y/N)

If confirmed:

# Push commit to current branch
git push origin $(git branch --show-current)

# Push tag
git push origin vNEW_VERSION

If not confirmed: Stop here and report that release is ready locally but not pushed.

Step 11: Create GitHub Release

Task: Create GitHub release using gh CLI

Prepare release notes file (temporary file):

1. Load template: skills/releaserator/templates/release-notes.md
2. Substitute variables:
   • {{VERSION}} → NEW_VERSION
   • {{CHANGELOG_ENTRY}} → the changelog entry content
   • {{REPO}} → owner/repo
3. Write to temporary file (e.g., /tmp/release-notes-NEW_VERSION.md)

Create GitHub release:

gh release create vNEW_VERSION --title "vNEW_VERSION" --notes-file /tmp/release-notes-NEW_VERSION.md

Flags explained:

• vNEW_VERSION: Tag name (must already exist from step 9)
• --title: Release title shown on GitHub
• --notes-file: Release body (our changelog entry + links)

Capture release URL:

# Get release URL
gh release view vNEW_VERSION --json url --jq .url

Store: RELEASE_URL = GitHub release URL

Step 12: Report Success

Task: Display release information to user

Output a summary:

✅ Release vNEW_VERSION created successfully!

**Changes**:
- Updated VERSION_FILE (OLD_VERSION → NEW_VERSION)
- Created/updated CHANGELOG.md with entry for vNEW_VERSION
- Committed changes (abc1234: "chore: bump version to NEW_VERSION")
- Created git tag vNEW_VERSION
- Pushed commit and tag to remote
- Created GitHub release: RELEASE_URL

**Release includes**:
- X features added
- Y bugs fixed
- Z changes made

**Next steps**:
- Announce release to users
- Update plugin registry (if applicable)
- Monitor for issues in new release
- Continue development

View release: RELEASE_URL
View changelog: https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

Template Variables

Templates use {{VARIABLE}} substitution syntax:

Error Handling

Dirty Working Directory

Error: Git status shows uncommitted changes

Message:

❌ Working directory has uncommitted changes.
Please commit or stash changes before creating a release.

Run: git status

Action: Exit without making any changes

No gh CLI

Error: gh command not found

Message:

❌ GitHub CLI (gh) not found.

Install with: brew install gh

After installing, run: gh auth login

Action: Exit without making any changes

Version Conflict

Error: Tag vX.Y.Z already exists

Message:

❌ Version X.Y.Z already exists as git tag.
Current version in VERSION_FILE: X.Y.Z
Existing tag: vX.Y.Z

Please update the version manually in VERSION_FILE,
or delete the tag if it was created in error:
  git tag -d vX.Y.Z
  git push origin :refs/tags/vX.Y.Z

Action: Exit without making any changes

No Commits Since Last Release

Error: No new commits found

Message:

⚠️ No commits found since last release vX.Y.Z

Current HEAD: abc1234
Last release tag: vX.Y.Z (abc1234)

These are the same commit. Nothing to release.

Action: Exit without making any changes

No Version Bump Needed

Warning: Only docs/chore commits

Message:

⚠️ No version bump needed (only documentation/chore commits).

Commits since v1.2.3:
- docs: update README
- chore: fix typo in comment

Do you want to create a release anyway? This will keep version at 1.2.3. (y/N)

Action: Ask user to confirm, proceed if yes

Plugin Not in GitHub

Error: Remote URL is not GitHub

Message:

❌ This plugin is not hosted on GitHub.

Remote URL: https://gitlab.com/owner/repo.git

The releaserator currently only supports GitHub.
GitLab and Gitea support coming soon!

Action: Exit without making any changes

Platform Abstraction

Current implementation: GitHub-only

GitHub-specific code is isolated in:

• skills/releaserator/platforms/github.md

Platform interface (for future expansion):

1. detect_platform() - Detect hosting platform from git remote
2. create_release(version, notes) - Create platform release
3. get_pr_link(number) - Format PR link URL
4. get_commit_link(hash) - Format commit link URL
5. check_cli() - Check for platform CLI tool

Platform detection logic:

REMOTE_URL=$(git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null)

if echo "$REMOTE_URL" | grep -q "github.com"; then
    PLATFORM="github"
elif echo "$REMOTE_URL" | grep -q "gitlab.com"; then
    PLATFORM="gitlab"
elif echo "$REMOTE_URL" | grep -qE "gitea|codeberg"; then
    PLATFORM="gitea"
else
    PLATFORM="unknown"
fi

To add GitLab support:

1. Create skills/releaserator/platforms/gitlab.md
2. Implement same interface methods for GitLab
3. Update SKILL.md to load platform-specific code based on detection
4. No changes needed to core logic (commit parsing, version bumping, changelog generation)

Benefits:

• GitHub implementation doesn't need refactoring when adding platforms
• Each platform has dedicated documentation file
• Core logic (steps 1-7, 9-12) stays unchanged
• Only step 8 (create release) and link formatting is platform-specific

Common Issues and Solutions

Issue: Tag already exists

Cause: Version bump calculation matched an existing tag

Solution: This shouldn't happen if logic is correct. If it does:

1. Check if plugin.json version was manually changed
2. Verify last tag detection works correctly
3. Ask user if they want to skip tagging or delete old tag

Issue: Commit parsing fails

Cause: Commit messages don't follow Conventional Commits format

Solution:

• Parse commits that do follow format
• Group unparsed commits under "Other changes" section
• Warn user about non-standard commits

Issue: Push fails (no permission)

Cause: User doesn't have push access to remote

Solution:

• Check git push output for authentication errors
• Suggest running gh auth login or setting up SSH keys
• Report that release is ready locally but not pushed

Issue: GitHub release fails

Cause: gh CLI not authenticated

Solution:

❌ GitHub CLI authentication failed.

Run: gh auth login

Then try creating the release again.

Issue: Can't determine repo owner/name

Cause: Git remote URL in unexpected format

Solution:

• Try multiple parsing patterns:
  • git@github.com:owner/repo.git
  • https://github.com/owner/repo.git
  • https://github.com/owner/repo
• Ask user to manually provide owner/repo if parsing fails

Success Criteria

After running releaserator, verify:

• ✅ CHANGELOG.md created or updated with new entry
• ✅ CHANGELOG.md follows Keep A Changelog format
• ✅ Version file updated correctly (plugin.json, package.json, pyproject.toml, or Cargo.toml)
• ✅ Git commit created with conventional commit message
• ✅ Annotated git tag created (not lightweight)
• ✅ Tag pushed to remote
• ✅ GitHub release created with correct notes
• ✅ Release URL accessible and displays correctly
• ✅ All links in changelog work (commit hashes, PR numbers)
• ✅ Changelog sections correctly categorized (Added/Fixed/etc)
• ✅ Breaking changes marked with ⚠️ if present
• ✅ No errors or warnings during execution